About Dr. Medrano
Marianela Medrano, PhD, LPC, CPT is a psychotherapist, consultant, and trainer with extensive experience in the behavioral and educational fields.
Dr. Medrano holds a CT license as a Professional Counselor and national certification as a counselor and as a poetry therapist. She is a certified mindfulness meditation teacher and a certified mentor supervisor with the International Federation for Biblio/Poetry Therapy.
Additionally, she has training in:
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR)
Trauma Sensitive Mindfulness (TSM)
Gottman Method for Couples Therapy
Embodied Writing (EW)
Dr. Medrano is a faculty mentor for SouthWestern College’s Ph.D. in Visionary Practice and Regenerative Leadership, Santa Fe, New Mexico. She holds a PhD in psychology from The Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, now Sofia University in California, where in 2006 she received a Fellowship to conduct studies on the spiritual practices of the Taíno people of the Caribbean. In addition, she holds a Master of Science degree in Community Counseling from Western Connecticut State University. In 2009 she received an Outstanding Achievement Award from the National Federation of Biblio Poetry Therapy for her work in the Dominican Republic and USA. In 2023 she was awarded a grant to conduct mindfulness and environmental work by the Bess Family Foundation.
A skilled therapist with a diverse professional background, Dr. Medrano has developed effective clinical competencies and has served and treated diverse populations in the USA and her native Dominican Republic. She has provided consultations and workshops to colleges, community organizations, and mental health clinics in the USA, India, Spain, Panamá, and Dominican Republic.
Throughout her career, Dr. Medrano has focused on the empowerment of individuals with work that taps into the physical, mental, and spiritual realms.
If you have any questions or curiosities about how we might work together, please contact me via email.
palabracenter@gmail.com
“I am beyond thankful for Dr. Marianela Medrano’s generosity. She was my mentor and supervisor during my CAPF (Certified Applied Poetry Therapy Facilitator) training with the International Federation for Biblio/Poetry Therapy. I cannot think of anyone better than her for this process. Her knowledge and experience greatly impacted my work as a bilingual Poetry Therapy facilitator. We have co-facilitated several bilingual poetry therapy workshops in North Carolina, and all our participants keep asking me to bring her back. She is my Maestra forever.”
“Dr. Medrano showed me simple, effective and sustainable ways to deal with my emotions through mindful writing. It has changed my life.”
“When I first met Dr. Medrano I was skeptical of her approach using writing as a healing tool. She proved me wrong with her gentle, caring, and kind ways. I write now on a daily basis and feel empowered and confident in my ability to guide myself out of any difficulty.”
“I’m grateful for Dr. Marianela Medrano’s ongoing body of work which I see as involving four essential components that I, too, as a fellow Afro-Taína creative writer and scholar want to embody—1) the personal expression through intimate stories/poetry/songs; 2) the specific cultural engagement and expression of traditional knowledge and language; 3) the larger human experience and compassionate/mindful connection; and 4) the spiritual expanse of the sacred in its feminine expression through the seen and unseen. I appreciate her brilliance and look to her example of being and doing in the world which has a profound multigenerational impact.”
— Jamie Figueroa -Author of Brother, Sister, Mother, Explorer